Foreign Students and Graduate STEM Enrollment

Submitted by Elizabeth Redden on October 11, 2017 - 3:00am

International students make up the large majority of full-time students in many graduate science- and engineering-related programs, and their numbers have been rising much faster than the number of domestic students, according to a new report[1] from the National Foundation for American Policy, a research organization focused on immigration and the economy.

The report found 81 percent of full-time graduate students in electrical and petroleum engineering programs at U.S. universities are international students, and 79 percent in computer science are. The report, which updates a previous version published in 2013[2], argues that at many U.S. universities “both majors and graduate programs could not be maintained without international students.” It further argues that “the increase in both the size and number of graduate programs in science and engineering at U.S. universities indicates U.S. student enrollment has not been held down by the lack of available slots at U.S. graduate schools.”

Field of Study

Percent International

Number of Full-Time International Graduate Students in 2015

Number of Full-Time U.S. Graduate Students in 2015

Electrical Engineering

81%

32,736

7,783

Petroleum Engineering

81%

1,258

302

Computer Science

79%

45,790

12,539

Industrial Engineering

75%

7,676

2,539

Statistics

69%

4,321

1,966

Economics

63%

7,770

4,492

Mechanical Engineering

62%

12,676

7,644

Civil Engineering

59%

9,159

6,284

Chemical Engineering

57%

5,001

3,834

Pharmaceutical Sciences

56%

1,931

1,502

Metallurgical/Materials Engineering

55%

3,723

3,103

Agricultural Engineering

53%

726

654

Agricultural Economics

53%

881

796

The report found that between 1995 and 2015, the number of full-time domestic students enrolled in graduate computer science programs increased by 45 percent, from 8,627 to 12,539 students, while the number of full-time international graduate students increased by about 480 percent, from 7,883 in 1995 to 45,790 in 2015.

Over that same time frame in electrical engineering, the number of full-time domestic graduate students decreased by 17 percent, from 9,399 students in 1995 to 7,783 in 2015, while the number of full-time international graduate students increased by 270 percent, from 8,855 to 32,736.

The report, which includes enrollment breakdowns for selected individual universities, is based on data from the National Science Foundation's Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates and NFAP's own calculations.

NFAP also issued a second report[3] Tuesday making a case for the value of the STEM optional practical training program, which gives international students in STEM programs the opportunity to stay in the U.S. and work for up to three years after graduating. Many believe the program is vulnerable to being ended or changed by the Trump administration.